Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder and CEO, has a Q&A session at a press conference during the APEC CEO summit on October 31, 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Woohae Cho | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may not be a member of K-pop band BTS, but the interest in his visit to South Korea has reached levels one might expect of a global celebrity.
A website named “Jensen Huang’s Footprints” in Korean shows a map and timeline of his expected locations and meetings over the four-day visit, which starts Friday. Meals of smoky Korean barbecue and soju drinking sessions are anticipated. Huang is set to appear on one of the country’s most popular variety TV shows, “You Quiz on the Block,” and will throw the first pitch at a Doosan Bears baseball game.
That agenda isn’t just for his amusement. Nvidia is looking to deepen its ties with South Korea as tech supply chains come into focus given the Iran war, and as the company faces rising regulatory hurdles in selling to the mainland Chinese market. A successful visit by the well-regarded CEO could be very helpful for the company’s fortunes in the country.
“Korea is a critical part of our ecosystem,” Huang told reporters at a dinner with South Korean tech executives on the first day of the annual Computex trade show in Taipei.
Look closer, and the business side is in focus for the Koreans as well. The Footprints website, which has drawn more than 80,000 visitors, displays the share-price moves of companies that are often associated with Nvidia. Potential meal partners include titans of the tech industry like SK Group’s Chey Tae-won, LG Group’s Koo Kwang-mo and Naver’s Lee Hae-jin.
Even at the baseball game, the chairman of the Doosan conglomerate that owns the Bears is set to join as a batter.
CNBC compiled details of the expected meeting and meals, based on reports including from Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper by circulation. The baseball game that Huang will be attending has been confirmed by the team, while the TV channel confirmed his upcoming appearance on the variety show.
Shares of South Korea’s chip makers slipped on Friday despite the excitement over Huang’s visit, tracking overnight losses in U.S. chip stocks following Broadcom’s downbeat earnings report. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics fell 3.98%, while SK Hynix dropped 7.22%.
Shares related to pork belly and Korean soju are mixed ahead of Huang’s arrival.
Agrifood leader Farmsco gaining 2.85% and conglomerate CJ CheilJedang losing 0.60%, while alcoholic beverages companies HiteJinro and Lotte Chilsung dropped 3.44% and 0.19%, respectively.
